Letters Home from a Yankee Doughboy 1916-1919

Well not quit but we are going on a long trip anyway. We left Framingham at about 7 oclock Tuesday. I am feeling fine. Don’t worry, Ill be back. I cant say where I will mail this but I am getting it ready now. Will write again

Troops of the AEF overseas received mail after it had completed a long journey often taking upwards of a month to reach its destination. In 1917 the U.S. Postal Service established a military Post Office Department in France which was ultimately operated directly by the U.S. Army and handled a huge volume of mail: By February, 1918 when Sam Avery first went into the front lines, more than 600,000 pounds of mail per week were transported and delivered overseas!

The journey of mail “Over There” from the United States took it by train to Chelsea Terminal in New York City where it was carried overseas on ships that sailed in convoy across the North Atlantic. Upon arrival in France, the mail was then sorted and distributed by military trains to the Divisional Post Offices. The Divisional Post Offices would then process the mail by Regiment or Battalion and forward it by truck to the individual units.

There were many opportunities for mail to be lost or misrouted along the way.